Crystal Clear Proofing: Assure, Ensure and Insure

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Assure, Ensure and Insure

Assure, ensure, and insure can be confusing. Here are the definitions along with some examples to help clarify the distinctions for you.

Assure: to promise or say with confidence
Example: Let me assure you that I will be at the meeting at noon.

Ensure: to make sure something will/won’t happen
Example: To ensure my family’s safety, I have installed an alarm system.

Insure: to issue an insurance policy
Example: I will insure my home with additional fire and flood policies.

Source: Grammarbook

4 comments:

JournoMichMarch 23, 2011 at 6:38:00 AM CDT
Gracias, proofreading friend! I find myself paying more and more attention to these as my kids get older. I just finished teaching my husabnd the difference between "lay" and "lie." If he can't speak correctly, how can we expect them to do so?

Thanks, Crystal!

Michele
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Mason CanyonMarch 23, 2011 at 10:05:00 AM CDT
These three can be confusing. Thanks for the reminder. Happy Spring to you too!

Mason
Thoughts in Progress
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Old KittyMarch 23, 2011 at 5:19:00 PM CDT
Happy Spring to you too!!!! Thanks for this fab reminder - it's like Enquire, Inquire! Great stuff! Take care
x
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UnknownMarch 24, 2011 at 12:50:00 PM CDT
Michele, Mason and Old Kitty: It is always SO rewarding to know that my posts are helpful and informative! :)

I'd like to thank you again for hanging in there with me, and my blog! It means so much that you continue to stop by, even though my posts have been sporadic due to a full editing schedule, (YAY)!

It's great and I'm thrilled to have the work, but I do miss my blogosphere friends! That's just one of the reasons your support means so much to me. ♥
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Crystal Clear Proofing posts the greatest writing/editing tutorials. As an editor myself, I go there often to learn subtle nuances in the craft of good writing, as she has this marvelous ability to make those fuzzy, sometimes hard to determine, gray areas of correct writing, well…Crystal Clear!

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I.E AND E.G.
Thank you! I've never know what those meant or how to properly use them!

JOINT AND SEPARATE POSSESSION
Thank you so much! I had a hard time finding what joint and seperate possession means! Once again, thank you!

WAIT AND AWAIT
Oh, I love this site! Do you have a past post about lay, lie and all that good stuff?

This is a very clear and succinct explanation of the distinction between the two words."

LAY AND LIE
OMG! This is GREAT!!! I might actually understand it now! Thanks so much, Crystal. This is an awesome site!

You have a great way of explaining words. Your blog is a wonderful source for writers. I'll have to search your post to see if you have "affect" "effect", I know I use those improperly often.

AFFECT AND EFFECT
Thank you for this great post! I have printed it to keep it handy. Hopefully, it will positively affect my future writing.

Thanks for this post Crystal. I was going to actually email you and request that you explain the difference between these two, because these are usually a problem for me. Thanks again!

Another classic, Crystal Clear explanation...this tutorial contains some subtle nuances well worth being reminded of. Thanks!

THAT AND WHICH
Another excellent grammar lesson!

You are really rockin' this grammar instruction! I am currently working on a short story for class, which must be submitted this week, and this was very helpful. Did I get it right? (Note from CCP: she did get it right!)

WHO AND WHOM
Perfect! Got it...I keep all these tutorials in a bookmarked file now.

Great tutorial!! I'm saving this one.

Another great tutorial.

QUOTATION MARKS
Great post. Good tips about punctuation.

AWHILE AND A WHILE
Another fine tutorial. Got it added to my Clear as a Crystal file.

What a wonderful tip!

Oh!!! Those examples are perfect and it really makes sense now. Thanks!

APOSTROPHE USE WITH POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Excellent and very thorough. Got this one copied and stored along with ALL your tutorials in my Crystal Clear Writing folder. :)

Another excellent post. I always have trouble with these.

Now that my eyes have re-focused after glazing over, I can say that this is why writers need to hire editors--So they don't have to think too much about grammar. I can't keep all the darn rules straight in my head. Thanks for doing what you do. I am cutting and pasting this into a new word file for grammar tips.

Good one! I'm tweeting this.

Clear and concise. Thanks.

That possessive S has at some points been the bane of my existence...so thanks for this.

Great article! Thanks for the examples too.

Confusing topic, excellent post. Many people really do not know at all how to handle these pesky little things, so thanks for 'splaining it so nicely.

Excellent post! I enjoyed this a lot...Great blog. :)

LEVELS OF EDITING
Crystal, great explanation and post today - I copied it as a word doc and stored it in my "Crystal Clear" file.

You've written a wonderful post that throws light on a rather mysterious (to me) subject.

ONE WORD VS. TWO WORDS
Another great post.

Thanks for sharing this list and clarifying these points.

WRITING DATES AND TIMES
Writing dates and times is always confusing for me, so I really appreciate this, Crystal! Thanks.

Great tips. This is very helpful. Thanks.

Awesome tips. I make some of those mistakes.

I will copy and paste into a writing tips folder I've started to gather all these handy dandy things in one place. Thank you.

Great post!

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Good stuff Crystal!

Very good and clear lesson here. Copied and pasted it into a Word Doc and saved it in my "Crystal Clear" file!

You have some good reference article(s) here, Crystal. :-)

PREPOSITIONS
Excellent tutorial, got it saved as usual.

Thanks for this! Bookmarking it for easy reference.

SEMICOLONS
Another great and much needed post for people like me. This is why you are the Grammar Goddess!

Oh I agree. You are the Grammar Goddess. I have the worst time with commas and semicolons. Thanks for the helpful post. I'll have to print this out and keep it close.

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You make it look so easy!

Good one!

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COLONS
As always, awesome advice and clarification.

Thanks, Crystal. Helpful, as always.

Great advice, Crystal! I'm tweeting.

Helpful as always. Thanks.

DASHES
You should really turn your blog into a book. Now THAT is a grammar book I would buy!

Thank you so much for this post. The explanations and examples made it "crystal clear" for me. :-)

I like your distinction between the use of dash and colon. It makes sense to me.

Most helpful. I just had to change a host of en dashes to em dashes in my ms.

HYPHENS
Thank you very much for this post!

Great tips, Crystal! Thanks so much.

Such great advice! Thanks for the valuable lesson!!

Great post. Thanks.

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These are wonderful guidelines, Crystal, thank you!

Another fine tutorial.

I'm pretty sure I don't use hyphens correctly. It was good to read through this advice and think about how I do use them. Thanks.

Good post, great blog!

OVER THE TOP AWARD
Congratulations, you and your blog are "Over the Top."

Your blog is sure Over the Top! One of my favorites!

FIFTEEN PUNCTUATION FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Great summary.

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Great tips! I'm tweeting.

Crystal this is excellent. I've got it stored in my Crystal Clear file folder.

Yeah, I've created a Crystal folder as well and cut and paste all your gems.

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Great tips as always :)

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EFFECTIVE WRITING
I think this is one of my favorite rules post yet. So helpful!! May have to post this one on my desk too, I know I'll get one of those flip book easels so I can have all your post handy and in my face to remind me. I need that, you are an editor extraodinaire!!!

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CLAUSES
Thanks! I love these tutorials.

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CHALLENGES
Great idea for a proofreader post!

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***************************************************************************************** "Editors and proof readers are the unrecognized support structure of books. Without them, books would take authors twice as long to complete." Comment left by Leigh Russell (CRIME FICTION)